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sy house

Ricky S Eleanor Sy

DASMARIÑAS VILLAGE, MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA

ARCHITECT JOEY YUPANGCO, JY+A

"Light is an element we tend to play with in our projects. Natural light filtering through the house, by way of light voids or punctures, relieves dependency upon artificial lighting during the day. Illumination enhances spatial experience, imbuing spaces with calmness, repose, and inner peace." JOEY YUPANGCO

Well-known modernist Joey Yupangco describes this home in Makati City as "a house like the face of Janus" because it has two very different faces, two orientations. "This time the rear became the front." The original family home was a spacious Filipino-Spanish 1980s bungalow complete with red shingles on the roof and wrought iron over the windows. The challenge for designer Yupangco was to create a contiguous unit within the big old house where a young professional couple could enjoy a lifestyle reflecting their tastes and interests. His design resulted in a radically different modernist unit inserted within the existing framework, sharing the same roof as the original house, but outfitted in a completely different style. The front elevation remains the original family home, but the rear façade reflects the new generation's design interests: functional minimalism, Japanese sensibility, linearity, contemporary materials (aluminum, concrete, and frosted glass), and natural light.

The linear modernist unit was "inserted" in a 1980s bungalow, which is visible over the fence beyond the pool. The new home of glass and steel soars forth, but retains the old stucco roofs with heavy fascia and deep eaves.

The hallways upstairs feature bent glass walls made of aluminum bands and glass panes. The purpose behind the high-tech look is to capitalize on the natural light brought into the narrow volume as well as to replace mass with transparency.

In the sleek living/dining/work area under the mezzanine, industrial glass walls meet concrete floors in a stunning display of functional minimalism. At right is a full wall of storage under translucent slide-away panels. A worktable is cantilevered to the central post.

From the front of the house, the fusion is subtle. A massive plinth in naked concrete is set under the wide roof fascia. The new space then emerges within the old, first glimpsed through the front door as a transformation in space and materials. The space has been deconstructed and rebuilt as a glass-lined, minimalist apartment. What was low-slung and cozy in the 1980s has been reborn long and tall in soaring vertical lines, bathed with light from above, floored with expanses of polished concrete and white stone, and walled with glass paneling from end to end.

The linear interior derives its theme from modern Japanese design, visible in the sliding panels and doors, the aluminum framing on glass, and the "folded walls and ceilings" (smacking of origami) on the upper level. At the center of the double-height atrium, a lofty skylight contains a "suspended sculpture box"—the designer's centerpiece and the main point of visual interest in the duplex—that refracts light falling into the space.

Home owners Ricky and Eleanor Sy enjoy an informal lifestyle, hanging around the open kitchen together or with friends, dining on an extra-long worktable, and listening to music in the audiovisual den. Yupangco deliberately oriented the "social zone" toward the rear, near to the swimming pool, which is set right up against the back fence. "Our lifestyle faces the back yard," says Sy, an IT dealer. "We have the outdoor greenery and pool in view, but there is no garden to take care of!" When guests do step out to view the façade of the "new" house, the old elevation is seen to the right, merged with the grid of steel and glass of the modernist insertion on the left.

At the back of the long apartment, light shines strongly through translucent glass curtain walls. Bold, colorful standing lamps provide the only ornamentation in the sparse space.

The sculptural boxes suspended high up in the atrium are Yupangco's modernist "lamps"—architectural elements designed to both accent the giant skylight and to filter the light pouring into the interior.

"Brutalist" or raw concrete wells—formed in place—and large windows shielded by micro-mesh shades and trees make for an unusual treatment in the master bathroom. The porcelain sinks and the innovative wooden bathtub are by Agape.

The ground floor plan shows the linearity of the site and house.

The lounging area at the rear is where the owners entertain close friends. The spiral staircase which climbs to the bedroom was built by Filipino carpenters who painstakingly beat the stainless steel by hand

The bright red egg chair—a classic by designer Arne Jacobsen—is a bold presence among the cool and translucent glass panels and linear aluminium frames of the Sys' modernist dwelling

Architectural elements, such as the installation under the skylight, are the main decorative features of the space. Furnishing is minimal. The bright oil painting by a young Philippine artist stands upright on a movable frame stand.

This cross section of the Sy house reveals the new modernist unit under the original 1980s bungalow roof.

An abstract design of four mirrors faces the traditional wooden front door at right. Beyond this stunning minimalist foyer is a series of sliding glass panels leading to the inner quarters

Within the atrium, a metal plank staircase ascends to the mezzanine, from where one can look over a balcony to the living/dining/work area below. Bedrooms are small and cozy, their translucent sliding panels or lightweight walls all non-loadbearing and flexible so that they can be adjusted as the family grows! Most of the corridor walls, made of aluminum banding with translucent glass panes, are bent or "folded," for dynamic visual interest. "These folded walls allow natural light to creep into all corners," explains Yupangco. "This is a new way of interpreting architecture, one that is both ambiguous and flexible."

The designer has used a limited palette to exploit the contrast and juxtaposition of solid concrete with glass and metal. Materials shift from solid to transparent and from rectilinear to vertical, expressing an interesting dynamic between common building materials. Structural walls have been "cast in place"—a signature treatment of beton brut or raw concrete by the cutting-edge modernist: "The design derives from the process: we use architectural strategies to create shifts, skewing from conceived perceptions."

Everywhere sheet glass is widely used: as walls, cabinet panels, and large sliding doors. One expanse of frosted glazing hides a segmented wall closet, storing household belongings. All is neutral, without paint or color, reduced to silver, white, and metal gray from the sheen of steel and aluminum. Yupangco points proudly to the handcrafted workmanship on the spiraling steel stairway by the back. He explains, "Here the architecture is the artifact and the furnishing.... The house can stand with or without art because it's already an art form in itself."